Answer to Question #217132 in Psychology for Did

Question

Discuss the position of the Church Fathers on the following social issues: common ownership, private property, wealth, usury.

Answer 1

·The common ownership of property is an addition to the natural law developed by human reason, not its violation. Church Fathers have consistently argued in favor of shared ownership over other issues such as greater equality or the responsibility of the wealthy to meet the needs of the poor, relegating those who advocated for the common right to heretics and impostors.

·Private property is an essential component of an authentically social and democratic economic policy and one of the conditions for civic liberty. To put it another way, personal property is the most rational way for man to honor the universal destination of products.

·The Church holds wealthy real estate and works of art. Some suggest that it should distribute more of its wealth to the poor. On the other hand, some Catholics contend that the Bible teaches that riches in and of itself is not a sin. It is greed that is the problem.

·The Church Fathers denounced usury because the "middle classes'" competitive replication of the elite's expensive tastes, as well as the constant refining of their purchasing preferences, led to their perpetually renewed servitude to matter and, finally to their creditors.